Two Fingers Up is an unabashed, coming of age tale featuring three best friends, Sharon (Orla Graham) Leah (Sarah Reid) and Hayley (Shannon Wilkinson) trying to navigate the uneven path from adolescence to womanhood.
More specifically, it’s about the failure of Catholic education in Ulster schools to address the nuances of teenage life, espousing a heteronormative way of love, where sex before marriage and abortion is forbidden. Created by Gina Donnelly and Seon Simpson, it’s a witty, raunchy romp into the nineties and beyond , and the cast of three give performances which are kinetic, sweet, and cringe-inducing in equal measure
The script should resonate with women who were given scant information on sex, consent and relationships when it was most needed, and the whole play emulates the surge of hormones and first times, when everything felt heightened and precarious.
“We were seriously misled by Barbie dolls”, they sigh, as tentative forays into dating prove disappointing, first periods are confusing, Ann Summers provides new insights, and best friends are every bit as gauche and vulnerable. And what on earth could “a thirty year old virgin in a backwards baseball cap” teach girls about sex?
It may be recognisable subject matter for the stage, but Two Fingers Up is honest, raw and very funny, a pertinent reminder of the need for a more modern, progressive approach to sex education .
Available through Summerhall Online until Sunday, 29th August.
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